What sick monster is the universe to make Amber, Alexei's sister and Mark's first cousin?

Tammy currently tries to breathe within the confines of a lingerie changing room. Amber hadn't shut up once throughout this outing. Tammy was already on edge because today they leave for Russia. It's real, and it's happening.

Amber had forced Tammy into this store and picked a bunch of random shit before pushing Tammy into this dressing room. This store makes the 8th store and the 3rd mall they had been to. Tammy is exhausted and frustrated. Alexei is with them today as well. Her stomach knots up being around him.

Alexei unnerves her. There is something completely off about him, and he frightens her. At the same time, Tammy can't help but wonder and observe him. Alexei is clean, sophisticated, relaxed, and unlike Mark, Alexei isn't animated. Alexei is older and reserved.

Why had he broken in?

Tammy peers, critically, into the full-length mirror. The brand still is sore. She isn't sure what the brand is because it is still bruised and puffy. Tears threaten her eyes. Tammy hates the secret between Mark and herself. Tammy has hope that if she can find something useful from Alexei that Mark will understand. She just has to come out loyal to Mark on the other side of this.

"So it's Tammy" For such a large man, Alexei moves fluidly and silently.
He's also done a better job breaking into her stall than the apartment. "Don't look so shocked, I'm sure you've, how they say, put two and two make four?"

Once again, Tammy shows she lacks modesty. "Yeah, you aren't someone to forget. "

"Here, come now." Alexei snaps his fingers with a bored air towards Tammy.

She grits her teeth in annoyance, coming to stand before Alexei. It's hard to play docile, but she has to get Alexei to confide in her or give information that she can give Mark. They will never have a normal relationship if she keeps this secret, and Mark could find out and kill her.

Alexei scans over her sports bra and boys shorts, clad body, before lowering to inspect the brand.

If Tammy weren't so afraid of Alexei, she'd ask him: what the fuck?

Alexei is physically attractive, but something about him lets Tammy know he isn't well versed in relationships. Alexei gives off a deviant vibe. This branding alone allows Tammy to know that there is something twisted about the seemingly all-together fellow. Why did Alexei brand her?

Tammy gets a good look at Alexei's shoulder-length platinum hair.

It is thick, shiny; all pushed to the back. It doesn't make him effeminate, the way men with such long hair often appear to Tammy. Suddenly, she feels an intense urge to know what it feels like. It's beautiful hair, and it is odd to her that he would be bothered to maintain it. Her fingers covertly and involuntary touch a loc of the golden mane. Alexei pretends he doesn't notice, and Tammy can tell.

His body stiffens, and Tammy would bet money he's upset. It's a petty thought, but a small place revels in being able to agitate the man that branded her. So, she feels again, Alexei's hair feels thick and silky, spinning around her fingers. She wonders where his boundaries are.

"It is..." Alexei takes a pause. He's thinking. "Infected. I will have medicine for it on the jet. "

Tammy simply nods as Alexei, never breaking eye contact, raises to his full height. She isn't a short person, and Alexei towers over her. He smells expensive and worldly. Alexei's mannerisms and stature make him appear made for a suit. This particular suit is tailored to perfection.

"Thank you." Tammy swallows, ready to be rid of his presence. Maybe poking a lion isn't a great idea.

"It is good that you have gone shopping.
I don't like the clothes you wear, walking around and under clothes. They are very plain.
It would be best if you had proper women's stuff. Get lots of colors, blue and Yellow. " His gaze sweeps over her body, and it doesn't feel sexual. He seems a bit disgusted with her.

"Um...will that help me to look after Mark?" Tammy only decides to ask because she needs to know what Alexei wants.

"No." He shrugs. "Just in case I have to see you unclothed again, I want you to look...just not bad like last time."

The asshole.

Tammy bites her lip to stop herself from bringing up that Alexei slyly took the pair of underwear she'd been wearing that night. She doesn't know his problem, and she doesn't give a fuck about looking "not bad" for him. However, it is probably wiser to remain quiet. She retrieves the pain reliever cream from her bra.

"Hand it to me," Alexei says with his hand open.

Subtlely rolling her eyes, Tammy drops the tube into his open palm. Men will always be men.

Alexei

He is an asshole.
Alexei fights against how desirable he finds a Tammy.

Her indifference towards him bothers him. Alexei also is upset, being blindsided, that this girl knows his baby sister. They worked together. Alexei shouldn't be too surprised, being that a lot of children of crime work in the corporate world to appear legitimate. The corporate world is a legalized version of crime life.

Why the hell is Tammy's at Mark's anyway?

He makes a mental note to read the report he had gotten about her. Tammy's complex, but he can't stop being magnetized to her.

Tammy avoids looking at him, and he is spreading the cream over the brand. He smiles to himself because he can tell she finds him interesting, if not attractive. She's trying to avoid being caught looking him over. He's never met a woman who found it easy to choose between himself and Mark, and that's why they'd shared a few. He begins to feel sickened, never again.

Usually, Alexei would be treating it with silver, but he knows she is more so in pain. Alexei feels Tammy cringe when he makes contact with the brand. It will heal up nicely, but that's not why Alexei chose to spread the cream.

He's been wondering how her skin feels. Now Alexis is enthralled with Tammy's near-nudity; Alexei's curiosity is heightened. She has a very lovely lower body, long thick thighs; Tammy's ass is bubble-shaped and firm. She has two dermal piercings in her lower back, like dimples. Her back is naturally arched with a delicate and straight spine. Her body is proportional, and nothing seems to be too big or too small. Alexei knows how hands could easily wrap around her waist and fingertips touch. Although opposed to the idea, he imagines his hands around her elegant and swanlike throat with her eyes looking up toward him and her sultry pouty lips slightly parted in pleasure.

Suddenly, Alexei really wants to ask how she ends up with Mark. Thinking about her and Mark bothers him. Alexei shouldn't be shocked that Tammy and Mark are fucking. He knows Mark too well, and Tammy, while not physically either of their types, is the exact type they fell in love with within their youth through her mannerisms and aura.

Tammy is beautiful beyond physicality. Some men would maybe find her average with the enhanced beauties of today, but Tammy is a stunning natural set of genetics. Mark knows how to deal with women like her. It's easy to imagine the two entwined in a bed. Alexei can see Mark claiming Tammy so thoroughly; she can't even think straight, she loves it, she craves it, and she's more than likely hooked on it. He knows Mark, and he knows women like Tammy.

When Mark likes something, he uses it up. He becomes insatiable and obsessive. The two of them have that in common, and it's been the most significant part of their falling out. Alexei knows all about that side of Mark. He can't allow Mark to get in the way of his now growing obsession with Tammy himself. He can't enable Tammy to get in the way of his more extensive plans.

"There. " Alexei hands Tammy the tube. "Wear some of the new clothing now. I'm tired of seeing you in the color white. "

Tammy looks at him with confusion, and he knows she has something to say about his request. She isn't going to verbalize the thought, and that lets him down. He wonders how much longer she's going to pretend to be docile. She's not that girl, and before they all know it, things are going to become interesting.

Tammy

"Okay, this is so cool!" Amber hands Tammy a glass of champagne, and there is a platter of chocolate-dipped fruits and finger foods between them on the jet. "When you just disappeared from work, I didn't know what to think! And now look, we are headed to Russia together!"

Tammy can't help the throbbing headache that builds behind her eyes.

She takes down her tight bun allowing her hair to be free. "Well, when I got kidnapped leaving work, I'd never thought you were cousins with my abductor, let alone that we would be flying to Russia. "

Amber seems to gloss past all of that. "I mean, why would I walk around talking about my family. It's so cool how all of this has worked out. My brother needs a hosts company for a while. "

"How much older is Alexei than you?" Tammy is curious because Alexei does appear a bit older.

"We are ten years apart." Amber scowls. "He treats me like a child. "

Tammy drank from her glass to hide her smirk. Amber is twenty-three, that's a child, and Tammy is twenty-six. Alexei is thirty-three and heading towards silver fox hood. The man, while feeling dangerous and sick, is undeniably a walking wet dream.

Speaking of Alexei, He is seated a few seats away, immersed in some documents.
He'd had the staff, coyly, give her medicine and colloidal silver for the brand. Other than that, Alexei hasn't interacted with anyone on the plane or spared Tammy a second glance.

Mark's gaze And her meet while Mark laughs at something Ivor says.

Tammy wished she could be with him. She has to immediately find something to give Mark on Alexei and be rid of this secret. In her mind, good sex isn't going to shield her from that side, or Mark; that's all about money and power.

Tammy hadn't seen Mark all day.

He is dressed smartly in an expensive and custom-tailored suit. For the first time in days, Mark resembles the man holding the gun toward her father. Seeing him like this makes her wonder who is the honest Mark. He seems at ease and in his element speaking to the heads of the family and comfortable in power. It only enforces the idea that she can't tell him about Alexei.

Tammy ponders Mark at the moment and misses Mark's familiarity as she absent-mindedly pays attention to Amber.

Tammy feels homesick, and she feels deep dread. Looking out of the window, she isn't sure if her life will ever be what it was again. Already, a deep foreboding makes her think this trip is more significant than it appears.
***********************************

They'd arrived in Russian, and things gave a false sense of feeling normal. Maybe Tammy is used to dysfunction because the biggest issue is that Mark completely disappears in spirit and physically leaves her behind, isolated for two weeks. The abandonment is crippling to Tammy, coupled with being in a foreign place with a devastating secret to hide and maintain.

It is beyond relieving for Mark to be back.

He entered the room, and Tammy now sits in conflict. She feels anger from the abandonment. Mark could have been anywhere. He could have even been dead. Where would that have left her? She tried to console herself with hopes of going home. If Mark perished, Alexei would have no reason to keep her here.

She spent time with Amber, but Tammy never truly clicked with Amber. Something throws Tammy off about her; no one could be that friendly all the time. Also, as much as the younger woman talks about how attractive men are and gives the impression she is slutty, Amber indeed doesn't have a man.

In the two years Tammy worked with her, Amber had one steady relationship. The relationship was short-lived but beautiful. It ended so abruptly; not even Tammy fully understood what took place to end it. Attractive Amber has been single and not dating since.

Amber is not hiding her interest to get Tammy close with her brother. Little does Amber know is that Tammy has Alexei Smirnov's brand on her ass for life. Tammy allowed herself to be branded for life.

Tammy overall sees the younger woman as a fraud, and something about that realization will not allow them to mesh cause real recognize real.

Mark is exhausted and disheveled.

His eyes lit when they made eye contact. Tammy bites her lip to prevent combusting, but she feels her caramel skin flush. It's upsetting that Mark believes whatever between them will distract her from his absence. He'd broken her heart with his abandonment.

How could Mark coerce her admission of needing him and then withdrew entirely from her in intimacy and then physically disappeared for weeks?

Mark began sleeping in a separate room. Then, he stopped checking in as many times a day. Soon enough, he wasn't doing anything to make her feel special. He has been the sort of guy to make time for quality time and give little gifts here and there. Tammy began to feel optional, and as she sank into depression, Mark disappeared from the house and just hadn't returned until today.

Tammy hates for many of these days; she's cried. Tossing and turning many of the nights, her eyes are currently rimmed with red and purple shadows. During these two weeks, she couldn't think straight. Tammy would become preoccupied with hoping Mark wasn't with anyone else but hoping things also aren't the worse, and he's dead.

Tammy hates Mark at this moment.

Sometimes she did think of scenarios where he is found dead because all of this needed to come to an end, forever. Tammy needs to return to her regular life, and while Mark was missing, it was a space where she had to continue understanding her life may never return to normal. She is terrified of that being the case.

Tammy also doesn't want to consider that Mark could abandon her.

The womanly side of her thinks he feels the emotions she feels as well. It's only Mark's intimate withdrawal and disappearance making Tammy doubt that he doesn't feel what he's been saying. They'd agreed. It isn't something she is assuming; Mark has told her many times that she's special to him. He's made her feel special.

Mark closes the door behind him, and Tammy's stomach begins to do flips as he approaches. She can smell alcohol on him, but he's not drunk. He looks like he's been smoking too. She feels angrier, thinking he's been having a good time and not handling business at all.

Tammy remembers a time Mark stopped an argument before it even began.

Mark asked if she was upset from believing he tires of her. He wondered if she'd thought he didn't want her anymore. Tammy had been so stunned by the confrontation that she hadn't had anything to say as suddenly she became convinced she had been worried about losing his affection.

Mark convinced her she was wrong. She hadn't been thinking the thought until he told her she was thinking it. Tammy had been thinking, much as she thinks now, that Mark was rude and inconsiderate, but as Mark asked the questions and confidently assured her she was wrong to believe them, Tammy came to believe she had been afraid of losing him and she's worried now.

Yes, she is desperately afraid of this man not needing her anymore.

It's unexplained. Maybe that's trauma bonding. Perhaps that's what people warn you about. They always say there is a form of love that isn't loving. However, Tammy, from experience, isn't good at knowing the difference between love and lust. Both emotions feel too powerful for her to stand in; they overwhelm and drown her feelings.

Mark makes love to her in so many ways, for so long, and with such attention to detail that Tammy can only think sex with him is emotional. Every single time he touches her, they go to a place where she can't help but pant and moan. Mark brings pleasure to her body she's never experienced fully with anyone before and always finds a way to say, 'see, I need you. '.

Mark shows her a passionate and vulnerable side, but these past weeks make Tammy wonder: Can he fake the way he seems to feel? And what's making her begin to believe he could or that Mark is?

The last night, in his apartment, has been on her mind constantly. He all but said he was falling in love with her and then disappeared. Why would he do that? While he was gone, Tammy began to consider maybe she needed to focus on getting Alexei on her side; he could perhaps help her. Then she felt stupid for thinking of Alexei as possible help.

Portions of the day became lost to Tammy, and it was that last day at Mark's apartment became an immersive live play. The fantasies looping around and each moment a rich, detailed concentration.
There had been moments where Tammy realized she could love Mark. Tammy doesn't want to be in love ever again, and she hates him for making her consider love. She hates Mark because it hurt to be without him.

She doesn't want to need him or anyone like that.

Yet, that's how it's always been for her. Tammy doesn't know how not to feel like that; she'd better off alone. That's why she didn't date and tried to stay celibate. Tammy hates Mark, deep inside, for that, and yet, she chose this when crossing the line and having sex.

"How's it been?" Mark tugs at the tie around his neck.

Finally, it is loose, and he tears it off. Mark takes lavish breaths as the costume no longer restricts him. His hands ruffle his hair, and it begins to texture, the ends already curling.
He is changing right before Tammy's eyes. His very demeanor is becoming that of the man she missed. Mark gives her a weary smile.

"Where have you been?" Tammy cringes at the way her anger claws to slip.

She couldn't believe his caviler with speaking to her. He's been gone for two weeks.

Tammy breathes deeply; she can't fly off the handle. "I mean... I haven't seen you since we landed."

Tammy bit the inside of her cheek while playing with pretend fluff on the luxury bedspread. She looks at her big toe wiggle with anxious energy. She hadn't wanted to sound like a needy girlfriend. She isn't his girlfriend. She wishes she weren't angry. She doesn't want to care.

"Look, just because I'm in Russia doesn't mean I'm on vacation.
If anything, I'm closely watched and judged. My Uncle feels that he can just put me on any assignment while I'm here, and I'm sorry you've felt ignored. "Falling at the foot of the bed, Mark sighs, and his eyes close in relief.

His tense body relaxes with the high-end orthopedic mattress beneath him.
"Besides, you need some dick. I know that's what you want. "

Mark makes her laugh, and you can't be angry and laugh. Tammy grins before throwing a small pillow at him. Her anger is breaking, and he feels it too. She struggles not to give in to him, but the more significant part of her doesn't want to push him away or be angry with him.

Mark caught it and chuckled. "At least I know you missed me. I missed you, baby. "

Tammy couldn't resist the opportunity to pull him closer and run her fingers through his wavy hair.

Mark sighs and visibly relaxes at the contact of the scalp massage. He surrenders to Tammy's need to touch him, to feel him. He relinquishes himself over in acceptance of her affections. Tammy can't help but feel honored by him. Suddenly she feels she overreacted. He's obviously drained, and before they got here, she could see his family stressed him out. Maybe nothing has been about her. She feels selfish.

"I know we aren't a real thing and that our being together is fucked up, but it's so lonely when you aren't around me. It's painful, and it's scary. You're the only one I feel gets me." Tammy admits, knowing what she finally wanted to say. That sums it all.

Tammy isn't about to mention the ways that make her loneliness scary.

She is afraid of how much she's losing power over herself. Tammy doesn't like the secret she's keeping but finds it necessary. Tammy doesn't want whatever monster is forming out of her gradual agreement with Alexei. Tammy is afraid of who she is around Alexei and everything he can do to her.

Mark looks up at her and becomes serious. "I feel the same about you. I fucking hate my family, and I just know when I get back to you, I can be the real me. I'm sorry. "He begins to spiral into sadness, and Tammy witnesses a depth of depression she's never witness manifest before her eyes as she looks into his eyes.

It worries Tammy deeply that Mark's misery is accessed quickly, unpredictably, and fluidly. He was just joking with her.
"You know, I'm starting to miss this messy hair and your Nike suits."

Mark smiles at her. "And I miss you in gray sweats and a white tee."

Even though "kidnapped," Tammy has found she isn't missing her old life. She doesn't sincerely miss her family, and she didn't miss her job. Things weren't perfect in her former life. She did have issues and something she'd hoped would change.

Tammy loves her mother, but she doesn't like their lifestyle. Her father and herself bumped heads often. She'd wanted more and yet didn't have a clue what more should be. She wanted to be better than who she was, and she'd been working on that.

However, Tammy does miss that perfect apartment and all the intimate moments with Mark. Life within that apartment was perfect, if not a facade.
"Yeah, I miss it too."

"Stay in with me today. " Mark says the idea as they both yearn for a simple pretend. They don't want anything to exist outside this door.